Page 36 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

enamelled porcelain trade. This research is by far the most comprehensive survey on

the porcelain trade of Britain; however, Godden’s research does not specify the

information that he consulted. For example, he uses auction catalogues of the

eighteenth century to demonstrate the value of porcelain in contemporary time, but

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does not provide detailed references to such sources.
The Dutch statistics for the porcelain trade with China, particularly in the

eighteenth century, seem by far the best researched. In considering the research on the

study of Chinese export porcelain, the most significant contribution is the work of

Christiaan J.A. Jörg. His ground-breaking research on the Dutch porcelain trade as the

first comprehensive art-historical survey of Chinese porcelain from the founding of

the purchasing to the end of the selling in the eighteenth century based on extensive

archival research. Jörg’s research covering the period from 1729 to 1796 is detailed.

By linking the surviving pieces and textural resources from the Dutch East India

Company, Jörg has enriched our knowledge of the porcelain trade between China and

the VOC during the eighteenth century. His research also serves as an important

source of information on the porcelain trade in the eighteenth century. The detailed

narratives in his research of Chinese export porcelain and Supercargoes have

facilitated the research of the present day in terms of the Chinese porcelain trade.

According to his research, it is possible to determine the purchase price, quantity, type,

and pattern of porcelain of the pieces that the Dutch East India Company traded in

Canton. The appendix of his book Porcelain and the Dutch China Trade provides my

thesis with a valuable source on the VOC porcelain trade, and the combination of the

38 Godden, Oriental Export Market, p.60.
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